United Nations

Mary Robinson , former President of Ireland, became the highest ranked woman in the history of the United Nations when she was appointed as High Commisioner for Human Rights.

The United Nations adopted the Land Mines Convention, officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction.

The Kyoto Protocol (an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, to set limits to emissions of greenhouse gases. It came into force on 16 February...

A massacre at Drenice in Albania led NATO to get involved in the Bosnian or Kosovan war, which had been going on for at least a year and had been prefigured in local ethnic violence...

The Security Council of the United Nations passed Resolution 1325, which calls for a greater involvement of women in global affairs, particularly in efforts to promote and maintain peace.

At a meeting of African regional women activists, Stella Obasanjo of Nigeria called on African nations not to tolerate another incident of female genital mutilation (sometimes called female circumcision).

Following a May referendum on statehood, the Montenegrin Parliament proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Montenegro.

A number of international organizations and brave individual women, plus a massive online petition, brought about a Girl Summit in London, UK, at which the governments of Britain and a number of African countries...

Emma Watson , the young performer who played Hermione Grainger in the films of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter books, made a speech on gender equality, by invitation, to the United Nations assembly in New York.